The present invention relates to a system for changing the print format of unit prices, quantities, and the like printed on say a receipt by an electronic cash register (hereinafter abbreviated as ECR).
A department store, for instance, uses a number of ECR's in a corresponding number of department locations for cash registration work. In such registration work, receipts are issued for the payments received from customers. An example of printout on a receipt is shown in FIG. 4. The name of the store, the date, the unit price and quantity of the commodity sold and the total amount of individual items are printed downward on the receipt 1.
Typically, the receipt 1 shown in FIG. 4 includes a unit price print region 2, and a quantity print region 3 where the quantity of each commodity sold is printed. In printing a unit price of, for example "100" in the unit price print region 2, with the leftmost limit for printing on the receipt 1 as a highest digit place point P1, a point away in the leftward direction by a distance of L1 from the point P1 is set as a print reference point P2. Here, the distance of L1 corresponds to the maximum assumable number of digits to be printed out. So, the unit price is printed out in the unit price print region 2 with the unit digit at the print reference point P2.
Conventionally, the print format data such as the print reference point P2 and the maximum number of digits to be printed out L1 are stored in form of a program in a ROM (read-only-memory) in the ECR, and are therefore difficult to be changed on the user side. To change the print format on the user side, it is necessary to replace the ROM storing the print format with a different ROM, which is quite troublesome for the user.